Ark 23 Episode 17 : The Rebirth of the Spider Queen
For days it had been going on, the spiders crawling from all corners of the city to a central location. The scuttling little things weren't noticed by anyone, who'd notice a tiny spider crawling past? They were all convening in the same building Syl died in. The spiders were collecting Max may've though he burned Syl to nothing but he'd been wrong in reality, combustion processes are never perfect or complete. (Ashes from combustion of carbon A.k.a Syl's organic plant bases body) or carbon compounds (as in combustion of hydrocarbons, wood etc.) Both burned carbon (as soot) and carbon compounds (CO and others) will be present. Also, when air is the oxidant, some nitrogen will be oxidized to various nitrogen oxides (NOx). The smallest spiders were gathering this carbon compound and crawling inside the building with it, gathering it all into a pile, the spiders had been working tirelessly for days after Syl died to gather her from wherever the wind had scattered her. After all their efforts they began to crawl into the pile of ash and deconstruct their bodies, at first glance they may've seemed like regular spiders but they weren't, they were created by Syl, and had her hair, plant material, and nano machines infused within each one. Syl's consciousness was within each spider, if only a small amount, to Syl all she remembered was intense pain, then floating. Thus began the time staking process of the nano machines coming together, regenerating and multiplying. They were using a process known as cell division this process is the restoration of the lost cells/pre existing cells divide and redivide and stop when the size of the tissue reaches the maximum or desired size. In many unicellular forms, cell division is an important mode of multiplication. But in multi-cellular organisms, cell division is absolutely required for growth. Hence the preexisting nano machines contained in the many spiders that Syl created while she was in the Asylum, with Kin, and With Max. These spiders operated for Syl under a 'Hive mind way of life, a unified consciousness or intelligence formed by a number of alien individuals, the resulting consciousness typically exerting control over its constituent members, with Syl being the dominant consciousness, without Syl to guide them they set quickly seeking out finding the components necessary to reform the dominant mind, this process would take days to perform, as the nano machines were working slowly due to Syl not eating while she was with Max, and the spiders only eating what little flesh they could hold. The entire scene within the hallway was one right out of a horror movie, webs, and spiders everywhere all of them ontop of a tiny little fetus, shielded by a thin layer of tree bark. As the tree bark grew bigger over the past few days. If one watched softly they'd see that the spiders were somewhat melting into the fetus, slowly the tiny eight-legged creatures dissolving slowly into to and the more that ran to it, the more it grew, but this process was slow, and could only be seen by one watching for a while. Soon the bark split at the size of a full grown baby. The fetus seemed to start crying silently, as it moved and shuddered away from the cold air now introduced to it. The spiders were moving in a very strange pattern around the baby, they all were completely protecting the baby, was they came from all around the city if they had to cross anyone's path they merely just went around their feet. The scuttling noise was quite apparent in here as the spiders worked endlessly to rebuild the body, soon they had a full model, now they just had to let the plants regenerate herself, but due to the lack of light, water and flesh they had at their disposal. The spiders were bringing back long strands of black hair also, and weaving it into the fetus. Now the spiders just kept merging into the tiny fetus, and it grew and took shape over the course of a couple days, forming into a slender figure. The body was devoid of any deep curves, or large breasts but one could tell it was female. It just had one of those very boyish shapes, the first thing that majorly happened was the eyes, the hateful eye red eyes that stared at the ceiling in great pain and anger. After about the 5th day she was almost fully formed and very weak. Pale skinned with very long black hair, that spread under her, like a sheet. Her body over covered my the spiders that crawled on it, which didn't seem to bother the girl, if the blonde was still there at the final stage of the regeneration she just stare at her, with her cat like pupils and newly violent red eyes. Being too weak to move her hair just twisted and writhed around her as it flexed getting used to being whole again. Syl stood up breathing harshly, struggling to stand she adsorbed the rest of the spiders, soon there were none left in the area. Syl collapsed back down into a heap as she twitched, her nano machines were changing. Due to a fail safe Syl's mother installed in Syl, they were changing Syl's physiology, forcing her to take on a more primordial form, Syl growled as her back was suddenly on fire, it felt like something was pushing against her skin Syl writhed and contorted in pain as she vomited blood and gasped, 8 legs ripping out of her back as her legs fused together and ballooned, her forehead bled as 6 more eyes, grew from it, all violent red. Syl soon found her self as a giant spider. She looked like a large Black Widow Spider mostly evident in her skin's general black and red color schemes and is most prominent in her spider form, where much like a black widow, her abdomen sports matching red markings. Syl was seeing as a spider saw. Spider eyes are different from insect eyes; they are not compound but simple. There is one lens for each eye, made of a thin layer of the cuticle. Below that is the retina, the actual light-detecting cells. They don’t have an iris like we do, and their lens is solid. But for fine focus, more is needed. The evolutionary work-around for this (if you are a jumping spider) is to have eyes that are a bit of a tube. The retina at the end of the eye has multiple layers of cells, each specialized in a different type of vision. By angling each of their eye-tubes just so, the spiders have binocular vision with excellent acuity and full color perception. The secondary eyes on the side of their heads give them more or less 360º vision. Jumping spiders don’t spin elaborate webs and wait for prey; they actively hunt during the day. They mostly use their silk as a belaying line while they leap and climb after their prey. But then came the hunger, Syl's stomach was burning. Terribly. She flopped down onto her stomach and ground her fangs together, moving in this form was more natural to Syl than one would've though, Syl's new body was made up of the old spiders and their knowledge transferred to her, She already knew how to move about in this new form, and it's peaks, but...could Syl use her plant powers? Syl summoned up her plant powers, weak from undernourishment and shook her abdomen, releasing a faint sent of pheromones, human male. And Unfortunately a male on the street smelled it, wandering into the building he followed the scent to it's source; Syl. She could barely be seen in the patch darkness until it was too late, Syl pounced upon him, her body weight too much for him as she smothering with with her large abdomen, soon he stopped moving and Syl began to eat, nearly all spiders subdue their prey by injecting venom through their fangs, which operate much like a pair of hypodermic needles. Besides the paralytic action of the venom compounds, the spider regurgitates digestive fluids onto the prey to digest it, working more or less like a meat tenderizer. Once the prey begins to liquefy, the spider uses its jaws and pedipalps to further masticate its meal. The “meat ball” is then slowly imbibed by the mouth parts, taken in mostly in liquid form. Prey is subdued by tightly wrapping it in silk. Due to Syl not having enough energy for wrapping a live fighting victim into a web she just...smooshed him. Syl began to suck up the man's fluid remains and sighed, she was no longer starving, but she was still hungry, at least she had some strength back. But Syl had transformed again, into a more concentrated version of a human/ but with spider anatomy. She was forced onto her toes, due to her legs tipping off into spiders legs, and 3 more pairs of legs grew from her back, each as about, 6 feet full stretched. Her cheeks now had mandibles growing from them; and 3 eyes grew from her forehead, Syl looked down at her few found height and staggered a bit, on her spindly feet. Syl touched her face and gasped silently, looking out of the window she'd seen it was nighttime, she could escape for now, climbing silently out of a window she slowly crawled down the side of the building and into an alley behind the building where she darted into the city, to find more food. Category:Ark 23